Search results for "skepticism"
showing 10 items of 44 documents
No long-term effect of a 2-days intervention on how to prepare homemade food, on toddlers’ skepticism for new food and intake of fruits and vegetable…
2017
Objective Optimal nutrition from early age reduces the risk of developing non-communicable diseases later in life. The aim of this study was to examine the long-term effect on toddlers’ fruit and vegetable intake and sweet beverages, and skepticism for new food, of a 2-days’ intervention on how to prepare homemade food for toddlers. Results The effect of the cooking intervention was evaluated by a randomized, controlled trial where 110 parents of 4–6 months old infants were included. Child diet and food skepticism were measured at 6, 15 and 24 months of age. There were no differences between the control and intervention group in the consumption of fruits and vegetables and intake of water o…
A Mission for MARS: The Success of Climate Change Skeptic Rhetoric in the US
2020
Radio and television broadcasters accuse climate scientists of “promoting a global warming hoax”, recommending that they be “named and fi red, drawn and quartered” (Rush Limbaugh); commit “hara kiri” (Glenn Beck); and be “publicly flogged” (Mark Morano). Conservative media are crucial in promoting climate skepticism. Likewise, climate skepticism resonates well with white middle-class men. But why does the middle class continue to support “radical” positions? This article focuses on Anti-Intellectualism to explain why climate skeptic rhetoric resonates with “Middle American Radicals” (MARS).
The Politicization of European Union Trade Policy: Radical-Left Euroskeptic Opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
2021
This study aims to analyze the correlation between radical-left Euroskeptic (RLE) activity and European Union (EU) trade policy by focusing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At the beginning of TTIP negotiations, the agreement was not high on political agendas and was not a major concern within European society. Thus, its salience was low. This initial lack of interest stemmed from the fact that the TTIP, as an economic and technical issue, did not draw public attention. This study shows that RLEs profoundly affected public opinion on the TTIP by increasing its salience during the European parliamentary elections in 2014 in France and Germany. Second, RLEs involv…
A Twitter campaign against pseudoscience: The sceptical discourse on complementary therapies in Spain
2019
The main objective of this article is to analyse the sceptical movement’s discourse on complementary therapies in Spain, as well as comprehend its mobilisation against these therapies. Over the past 2 years, the Spanish sceptical movement, constituted by citizen’s associations against unconventional therapies and in favour of evidence-based medicine, has increased its activism which, as a result, is now more familiar to the public. To perform this study, three sources of information were selected: (a) the #StopPseudociencias campaign, with a corpus of 6252 tweets; (b) 153 news articles published during the study timeline and (c) 7 interviews with members of the sceptical movement, journalis…
From Tian'anmen Square to the global world stage: framing China in the German press, 1986–2006
2011
Beginning with the historical background, the study investigates how two leading German newspapers covered the People's Republic of China from 1986 to 2006. These two decades were characterized by political turmoil and increased trade relations between the two economically powerful countries. The content analysis, which focuses on the amount of coverage, topics, and journalistic forms, attempts to describe how China has been framed over the years. The findings show an increasing significance of the economy on which again and again shadows were cast by political conflicts. Six frames can be observed; some are positive (political cooperation) and some are negative (scepticism with regard to p…
Care facilities for Germans in Thailand and Poland: making old age care abroad legitimate
2019
This article looks at old age care facilities abroad that target people who live in Germany. Such facilities have been established in Southeast Asia (mainly Thailand) and in Eastern Europe (mainly Poland). Given that they challenge central guiding orientations for old age care in Germany, considerable criticisms are levelled at them, and their use is viewed with distinct scepticism. Nevertheless, some of these facilities succeed in sustaining considerable demand from Germany over quite a few years. In this article, we therefore ask what strategies and arguments they use to make them a legitimate option for people in Germany and to be established on the German market. Based on two case studi…
2006
The Strawson´s Basic Argument is the stronger against moral responsibility in Philosophy of action. One should be responsible of his identity to be moral responsible of his actions, but then nobody could be never responsible. In this article I criticize orthodox solutions to Strawson´s sceptical challenge and show how they share with the Argument the same theological notion of monadical agent. A new solution needs a new conception of agent..
Polish highlander jokes and their targets
2017
The aim of the paper is to identify the characteristic features of jokes about Polish highlanders and analyse them to isolate the comic script of a highlander. This group of jokes is treated as a good illustration of Christie Davies’s ethnic jokes theory concerning canny versus stupid and centre versus periphery oppositions, as well as mind over matter. A particular type of reasoning and the use of regional dialect are distinctive features of the joke targets that make it possible to perceive these jokes as a culturally specific phenomenon. The head shepherd (called baca) is the key character of the cycle. He is a very down-to-earth person, who is proud of his practical wisdom and has a ver…
Expressed attachment to Russia and social integration: the case of young Russian speakers in Latvia, 2004–2010
2015
ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to establish if expressed attachment to Russia, amongst surveyed Russian-speaking youths in 2004 and 2010 in Latvia, demonstrates any noteworthy correlations with factors promoting integration and feelings of belonging to Latvia. The correlation analysis shows that a sense of belonging to Russia and a sense of belonging to Latvia are not mutually exclusive. However, those Russian speakers in Latvia expressing a closer sense of belonging to Russia are also more likely to prefer an all-Russian environment, are skeptical of their rights and influence in Latvia, and are more likely to perceive discrimination in terms of citizenship status and ethnicity. These …
The Relativity of Truth
2020
In this chapter, I discuss the relativity of truth and define the concept of viewpoint-relative truth. The relativity of truth is perhaps the strongest form of epistemological relativity that can used to deduce the relativity of knowledge and reality. One of the fundamental problems of epistemology is overcoming doubt, which is why I will introduce epistemology by presenting the problem of scepticism. After this, I discuss different theories of truth. The contextuality, or the dependency on context, of truth is focal to viewpoint relativism, and I build the definition of viewpoint-dependent truth upon it. As an example of relativism that utilises contextuality, I will present MacFarlane’s t…